Improvement in corn-seellers



EDWIN F. SnEinviAN,` 0F Unicorns, MASSACHUSETTS.

Letters Patent No. 74,726, datedV .February 18, 1868.l v

IMPROVEMENT in ooE'ir-sEELLEEs.I

dit@ tlgihnle nitriet tt in their tttet @anni mit nnliimg'gitrt if Ytigt stmt.

TO ALL IT MAYCONCERN; ,l

' lBe it known .that I, EDWIN F. SHERMAN, of Chicopee,rin the county of Hampden, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for shelling Corn, or 'C orn- Shellers; and I do hereby declare that the following isa full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and tothe letters of referencemarked thereon, making a part of this specification. In said drawings I l Figure I is a front elevation of said'machine, Y Y

Figure 2 is a transverse vertical section through the line V X, iigl, an

Figure 3 is ya plan of the shelling-cylinder.d

The nature of my invention consists in 'combining a revolving cylinder, having ridges arranged in a regular manner upon its convex surface, with a curved adjustable bonnet, having its concave surface armed with -numerous p'rojections'or teeth, in such manner that. ears of corn passing into the space between the cylinder andthe bonnet wil1,by the action of the ridges upon the revolvingeylinder, and of the teeth uponthe bonnet, be stripped of kernels. The main parts of my improved corn-Sheller are as follows: l V l First. frame for supporting the various parts of theimachine, with a hopper, from which the ears of corn are fed into the shelling-apparatus, and a sloping bottom, separator, and spout. g

VSecond. A shelling-cylinder, revolving in bearings attached to the frame, and capable of being turned `rapidly by the use of geared wheels.

' Third. A toothed bonnet, the concave surfaceof which conforms nearly to the curved surface of' the cylinderand covers about one-fourth of such surface, and which is attached to the frame in such manner as to be movable to some extent, and to press thevears of corn upon the shelling-cylinder. i

' to easily drawV the-corn forward upon the sur The construction of my invention is as Yfollows: The frame consists of top sills A Aat theV sides and ends i of the machine, legs B B, girts C C, -E E', .and feet H'H, all strongly framed together in the usual manner. A box, P, which I. denominate a hopper, is support-ed bythe girt E', `and is so shaped as to allow the yoperator lface of the cylinder with one hand, while turning 7che winch with the other. Ido'not confine myself, however, to the described form' of hopper. Y A,

Side-pieces F F support a bottom, which is of such form as to leave onlyasuiicient space betweenthe cylinder and bottom for the free passage of the. cobs. An aperture is left atthe lowest part of the bottom, across which aperture is placed'agrating or separator, formed by bars r r. These bars are set at such distance-apart as to prevent' the cobsrfrm passing through, whilethe shelledcorn readily falls between theniand into the spout beneath.

The shelling-cylinder is supported upon `journals mm, which turn in bearings l Zfastened tothe girts C C. A geared wheel, I, keyed upouthe journal m',rmeshes into a larger geared wheel, K, which is turned bythe Winch L. As it is desirable to turn the shelling-cylindermore rapidly than'ican be done. by abend-winch applied' directly to the journal m, the requisite speed of revolution is obtained by the use of` geared wheels of unequal diameter, the same being preferable to belts and pulleys for the purpose.

To form a dilrablc ridged convex surface upon the cylinder, I use curved plates or lags of east metal, each having flanges, 7c c, at the ends, and having ridges upon the convex surface, as hereafter described.V In actua-l construction 4for use, I use two circularzdisks or spiders," to support the lags, which are bolted to the disk or spider, the disks forming the ends of the cylinder, and the lags rforniing 4the curved surface. If the cylinder were made of wood, the'lags could be applied to it, so as to form, in like manner, a continuous metallic surface.

When the lags are" fastened in place vupon the-spiders, `(or upon the wooden cylinder,) the convex surface will have, at each end, a iiange, 7c, projecting to the height of one inch 'or more, forthe purpose ofv preventing the escape of the ears ofcorn at the ends of the cylinder. The ridges, tt, upon the surface of each lag, are,

in section, of the, form of an inverted V, and are placed in oblique line upon the convex surface.' These ridges may be continued in parallel lines across the surface of the lag, all running obliquely to the length of the lag,

or they may be made todiverge uniformly from a line across the middle of the length of the lag, as represented. Y.

The arrangement of the ridges,in lines oblique to the length of the Vlag, I believe to be essential'to the eiliciency of my invention, and to be novel, however the same may be arranged upon the/surface of the cylinder.

For the construction ofany ,given machine, I make all the lagsof the same form and conformation of surface but refer to a l them to the s iders or uv'on the vwooden lc' lindcrs as follows:

a P PP v I lace ever. alternate lacin a reversed `nosition on the c linder with renard to the direction ofthe ridves` I) y a L 7 o D and, in s0 doing, use an even number of lags 1n each machine, and arrange each pairv of lags so that the coinci-v dent ridges upon the twowill meet at an angle to eachother. By the describe-di formation of the curved surface` of the cylinder, an ear of corn, in passing between the cylinder and bonnet, rwill bevmoved bythe ridges upon one lag toward the end of the cylinder, and. by the'ridges upon the next lag toward theiniddle, or successively outward and inward. I do not confine myself, however, to the particular arrangement described, whereby the coincident ridges are made to meet at an angle, as' ridges ruiming obliqnely, and arranged around the entire surface of the 'cylinder in a. uniform direction, would make an etfective shelling-surface. Neither do I conine myself to forming the surface of'the cylinder by means ofllngs or plates, as a cylinder mightbe cast entire, with the same conformation ofsurface, as described.

The bonnet N has a ,curvedback and l'curved side-pieces R andis of such a lengtlnthat the side-pieces v project beyond the langes'c ,7c on the cylinder, and overlap them, so that no ears of corn can escape from between the cylinder and bonnet. The concave surface. of the bonnet coincides :nearly with the convex surface of the cylinder, and is armed' with numerous projections or teeth, To render this bonnet movable to'a certain eiitent, and so that it can adjust itself to different sizes of ears, and press the earsA` upon the cylinder, it is attached to a spring-bang, at the top, by screws L h, and works againstaspiral spring,` z, at the middle of its lower edge. The ends ofthe spring-berg restin mortises in the sliding standards a a, and are held in the mortises by the set-screws a a. The upperedge of the bonnet can,v therefore, be set at a greater or less distance from the cylinder` by raising or lowering theslidingstandards, which -move up and down .in grooves in' the fixed' standards b Z1, and are held in position by the set-screws c c. Slots c c, in the fixed standards, allow consideri blemovement to the set-screws c c. p

Thev spiral spring z is secured. to a pin or mandrel, F, secured to the girt E, and tends to pressthe bonnet towards the cylinder.` To prevent the bonnet from coming in contact with the cylinder, ears e c project on each side of the bonnet,and rest against stops cl d. Set-,screws el d, passing through slots in the stops d d, allow the stopsto be set at dil'erent points on'the girts (1C, so that the bonnet can be kept at a greater orlless distance from the shelling-cylinder.`

By the'means described, the bonnet canbe adjusted at a proper distance from theeylinder, and will then he freeto adjust itself, to a sufficient extentJ to the material/passing through the machine.

v Theoperation of my inventionwis'as fellows: The cylinder being revolved from right to left, and ears of corn being fed upon itssurfaoe, from the hopper, will be carried between the cylinder and'bonnet, and there stripped of corn., The teeth upon thelbonn'et serve to detain the ears of corn rather than' to shellthe kernels from the cobs, although some corn is removed by the action of the teeth,- but the ridges upon theeylinder are more effectivel in shelling than the teeth, and remove the kernels withgreatrapidity and thoroughness. The cobs and shelled corn pass down the sloping bottom to the separator, through which the shelled corn falls into the spout, while the cobs will be moved forward bythe ridges upon the cylinder, and discharged at e.

I am aware that ribbed cylinders have been used with a concave pressure-plate, asin the Letters' Patent granted to S. J. Parm'cle,bearing date December 24,1861, but I-believe the conformation and arrangement of the ridged shelling-surface hereinbefore described to differ materially from theribbed'cylinders heretofore in use, and I disclaim 'any and every part of the invention of said Parmele, as appearingin said Letters Patent.

What I therefore claim as mylinvent'ion, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, isi -1. The combination of a shelling-cylinder, having ridgesiplhced obliquely, as described, with the adjustable ltoothed. bonnetpthe whole arrangedv and operating substantially as setforth. K i

2. The flanges c c, in combi-nation with the obliquely-placed ridges of a corn-Sheller, substantially as and for the purposeset forth.

3.,.Rev`ersing the position of each alternate lay of ridges on the cylinder of a corn-Sheller, substantially las.

and for the purposes yset forth. v

4. The V-shaped ridges, placed on the cylinder lof a corn-Sheller in such a manner that, in each separate lay, their V.points sha-lll approach the centre of the periphery of the cylinder, while the` Varmsdiverge from the centre in opposite directions, substantially as andfor the-purposes described. l I EDWIil F. SHERMAN.

Witnesses:

J. PJBUCKLAND, OeDEN Gmswotn. 

